Sir Anthony Quayle, 76; Actor Won Distinction in Theater, Film, TV (2024)

Sir Anthony Quayle, who in a career that reached through six decades earned a reputation as one of the English-speaking world’s most distinguished actors, died Friday at his home in London.

Quayle, who was 76, had been suffering from cancer for several weeks, his agent, Laurence Evans, told the Associated Press.

An authoritative, forceful character on stage and in television and films, the burly actor was credited with bringing Stratford-on-Avon (the Royal Shakespeare Company) into the forefront of British theater, encouraging such dramatic giants as Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud to work there for minimum compensation.

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Although attracted to acting as a youth as an escape from a middle-class existence that he once described as “being shut in a box,” he was in the theater nearly 40 years before reaching star status with “Sleuth” in 1970.

His performances in London and New York as a middle-aged detective-story writer seeking revenge on his wife’s young lover were lauded by Clive Barnes as “pleasantly grim, slightly paranoid.”

The play won a Tony award, a prize Quayle himself had quietly won in 1956 with his performance as the bloody Oriental tyrant in Christopher Marlowe’s “Tamburlaine the Great.”

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Although “Tamburlaine” was an artistic triumph, it failed to make a star of Quayle, who continued to be forced “to do all sorts of crap,” as he referred to his film and TV assignments.

Not all of it was “crap,” despite his modest protestations.

His better-known, widely heralded film portrayals included characters in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Wrong Man,” “The Guns of Navarone,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “The Eagle Has Landed” and “Anne of a Thousand Days,” which brought him an Academy Award nomination for his role as Cardinal Wolsey.

On TV, he won an Emmy in 1974 as best supporting actor in a dramatic special for “QB VII, Parts 1 and 2.” He also appeared in the miniseries “Masada.”

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John Anthony Quayle came from a family of druggists in Lancashire and until his teens had thought that he would enter the family business.

But a lack of interest in chemistry and physics coupled with a fascination he found in the “pretty girls” in the theater sent him to the stage.

He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts for a year and then got a job as straight man to a comedian. He made his first appearance on the London stage in 1931, and was a stalwart of the Old Vic company for several seasons, making his American debut in 1936 in “The Country Wife,” which starred Ruth Gordon.

He first became a director in 1946 in a London production of “Crime and Punishment,” starring Gielgud, Peter Ustinov and Edith Evans.

He became director of the Stratford theater in 1948, appearing that first season as Petruchio in “The Taming of the Shrew.” He played Falstaff in both parts of “Henry IV” in 1951 and was in “The Merry Wives of Windsor” in 1955. He also recruited such young actors as Richard Burton and Laurence Harvey.

Referring to his ability to attract such established stars as Olivier, Gielgud and Ralph Richardson, he said, “You have to set an example--a merry example, I hope.”

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Yet as a manager or director, Quayle admitted, he sometimes believed that he had been “pouring creativity into others at the expense of my own,” he told the newspaper The Independent earlier this year.

“Sleuth” became his first taste of box-office success.

Other Broadway appearances included roles in Bertolt Brecht’s “Galileo,” Ustinov’s “Up the Tree” in 1967, and “Tamburlaine,” a role in which Quayle “combined a chilling and almost lunatic savagery with a kind of barbaric splendor,” critic Wolcott Gibbs said.

During World War II, Quayle had served in the Royal Artillery and then gave up a desk job in Gibraltar to help organize partisan guerrilla forces behind German lines in Albania.

“If life doesn’t have that little bit of danger about it, you’d better create it. If life hands you that danger, accept it gratefully,” he once told an interviewer.

He met such wartime giants as Winston Churchill, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Charles de Gaulle and afterward wrote of those adventures in two books, “Eight Hours From England” and “On Such a Night.”

In 1985, Quayle joined the distinguished company of actor-knights that has included Olivier, Alec Guinness, Gielgud, Richardson, John Mills and, most recently, Rex Harrison.

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Morton Gottlieb, one of the producers of “Sleuth,” which ran for 1,222 performances in New York, recalled Quayle as “a wonderful actor.”

“There are some actors who have a certain personality and no matter what the role is, that personality takes over the stage,” Gottlieb said. “But Tony Quayle would fit into whatever the role and characterization was rather than imposing a certain persona on the play and the audience. Sometimes with big stars that doesn’t happen.”

He is survived by his second wife, Dorothy, an American actress he married in 1947, two daughters and a son. His first marriage ended in divorce.

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Sir Anthony Quayle, 76; Actor Won Distinction in Theater, Film, TV (2024)

FAQs

What happened to Anthony Quayle? ›

Quayle died at his home in Chelsea from liver cancer on 20 October 1989.

Did Anthony Quayle serve in the military? ›

Quayle trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, but took time away from acting to serve as a British Army officer during World War II where he became an area commander of one of the Auxiliary Units in Northumberland.

For which film did Anthony Quinn win an Oscar for best supporting actor in 1956? ›

Quinn won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice: for Viva Zapata! in 1952 and Lust for Life in 1956.

What nationality is Anthony Quayle? ›

Sir Anthony Quayle (born September 7, 1913, Ainsdale, Lancashire, England—died October 20, 1989, London) was a British actor and director who was well known for his roles in classic plays on the stage as well as for his motion-picture career.

What happened to Justin Quayle? ›

There is a twist of chronology in this. For the postscript tells us of "the unhappy passing of Justin Quayle". "Deranged by despair and grief, he had taken his own life at the very spot where his wife Tessa had been murdered only weeks before." This is the final, official account - but not the truth.

Did Quayle ever run for president? ›

In 1994, Quayle published his memoir, Standing Firm. He declined to run for president in 1996 because of phlebitis. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 but withdrew his campaign early on and supported the eventual nominee, George W. Bush.

Who is the only US president to served as an enlisted man in the military and did not go on to become an officer? ›

While President James Buchanan is the only president who served and never became an officer, President Dwight D. Eisenhower is the only president, besides Washington, to have become a five-star general. Eisenhower led the Allied forces to victory in World War II.

Where did Bo Biden serve in the military? ›

Military service

He attained the rank of major in the Judge Advocate General's Corps as part of the 261st Signal Brigade in Smyrna, Delaware. Biden's unit was activated to deploy to Iraq on October 3, 2008, and sent to Fort Bliss, Texas for pre-deployment training.

Who declined the Best Actor Oscar? ›

On March 27, 1973, “The Godfather” won the Academy Award for best picture of 1972, but its star, Marlon Brando, refused to accept his Oscar for best actor, and in what would become one of the Oscars' most famous moments sent in his place actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather, who spoke out about the depiction of ...

Who is the oldest winner of an Oscar she was 80 years old when she won Best Actress award for Driving Miss Daisy? ›

Driving Miss Daisy received 9 Academy Award nominations and also achieved the following distinctions in Oscar history: It is the only film based on an off-Broadway production ever to win Best Picture. Jessica Tandy (at age 80), became the oldest winner in history to win Best Actress.

Did Anthony Field serve in the military? ›

Before he was a Wiggle, entertainer Anthony Field served for three years in the Royal Australian Regiment.

Who was the last president to serve in the armed forces? ›

The last one to serve was George W Bush who was in the Air National Guard. His father, George HW Bush was the last one to serve in combat. Every President starting with Truman to the elder Bush was in the military although not all in harm's way (Reagan was not near combat).

Did any actors serve in the military? ›

Jimmy Stewart is probably one of the most well-known actors to ever serve in the military and for him, it wasn't a brief stint but became a permanent part of his life. Drafted in 1940, the lanky actor was originally rejected due to being 5 lbs. underweight for his height.

Which president served in the Army National Guard? ›

After graduating from Yale University in 1968, George W. Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard's 147th Fighter Group at Ellington Field, completed Air Force flight training, and served as an F-102 fighter pilot before leaving the Guard in 1973.

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